The Whiteness of Snow
by Emania
Summary: (One-Shot?) Nuriko centered. Can’t give much of a summary or I’d give it away. It’s not long, so just read it, k? Spoilers for past ep 33. I think it’s okay as a one-shot, but my muse seems to want to continue it. I left it off so that I cou


**Summary:** Uh…hm…(shrug) Dunno. If I give any real kind of summary, I'll be giving away the story. It's not that long, like 4 pages, so just read and find out, k?

**Disclaimer:** Standard Fic disclaimer. Fushigi Yuugi doesn't belong to me anymore than Inuyasha does or Johnny Depp does...although the Gods know we'd have some fun if they did, huh? (wicked grin)

**Warning:** This fic has spoilers. If you haven't seen past episode 32, and you don't like to know things before you see the episode, then don't continue reading. If you have seen past 32 or you don't mind, then please continue at your leisure.

**Rating:** PG-13 probably cause of some suggestiveness, but nothing really bad.

**__**

**_The Whiteness of Snow  
_****_By Emania_**

**_- -_**

Snow.

As far as his eye could see there was nothing but uninterrupted white. When he could see nothing but the soft, pure white powder he could almost believe that there was nothing else in the entire world but himself, the mountain, and the snow. He always felt the twinge of pain in the pit of his stomach whenever he was surrounded like this. The twinge of pain and the rush of silence in his ears. It sounded like the rush of the ocean. It felt like death.

But that was alright. Death didn't feel like the end, after all. It didn't feel like sorrow or suffering. It felt like a complete rush of clarity, like the euphoria of epiphany. Like finally coming to realize the meaning of the world…He smiled a little. 'Well,' he amended. At least his little part of it. It felt like perfection, like everything was as it should be…or would soon be. It felt like everything was going to be alright.

He knew this as much as he knew that snow was white or the sky was blue.

But he also knew that death was tears, too. And some pain…pain of separation.

He shook his head as he exhaled. No, not pain, not exactly. It was the loneliness of separation. And fear. The fear that there would be nothing more, the fear that it would be darkness and he would be forgotten.

But he didn't fear that anymore.

He knew that he would be remembered, he knew that he was loved and he knew where he belonged.

But the utter whiteness of snow would always remind him of the time before.

_I have to watch over you… _

"Kiko!" ****

The young man turned to find the eyes of his sister as she waved across the snow laden ground. He grinned suddenly, all the pensiveness gone from his face as soon as he saw her smile (as it often did) and he waved back, with just as much exaggeration as she did.

"Kourin!" he called back.

"Come on, silly!" She cupped her hands over her mouth to make her voice boom louder even though they weren't really all that far apart. And besides, he had excellent hearing. He watched as the rest of his friends exited the log like structure, bundled tightly in fleece and down.

"We're hitting the slopes!" the taller, short haired one standing next to his sister called out.

He saluted and started to jog a little toward them. "Hou," he greeted as he approached. "When'd you get here?" Before he could answer, he looked at him and pouted, shaking his head at the taller man. "Aren't you a little old to be dying your hair blue?"

Hou grinned and the sheer mischievousness in it made him look as if he were 5. "Who said this is dye?" he asked enigmatically. "It could be, I had been dying my hair black until now."

Kiko looked at the short hair, the color of the cloudless sky and cocked his head to the side. "Hmmm."

"You're not the only one with strange colored hair anymore, na no da," he winked and walked off.

Kiko absently pushed his unruly lavender hued bangs out of his eyes and exhaled. "Well…I see how it is now," he chuckled under his breath. "You copycat!" he exclaimed.

"Yo!"

"Speaking of hair…" Kiko turned to the red head and smacked him hard on the back, sending him off balance enough so that he turned and glared at him. "Did you forget the gel again, Kou?" he greeted.

The red-head rose a hand to his spikey, rather short cropped hair and scoffed, pulling on the colorful ski cap with a half-hearted glare.

Kiko grinned as he stopped in front of his sister to pull down on her sky blue ski cap, bringing it down till well past her ears.

"Kiko!" she chided as she pulled the cap off and placed it back on her head with style.

Kiko was about to lead his sister away when the black haired man, the eldest and most accomplished of their rough-shod band of friends approached him, holding out the down parka jacket, ski cap, and goggles in his line of vision. Kiko took it and grinned, oblivious to the glare the slightly older man was giving him.

"You think you're invincible to colds?" the man asked.

"No, he just doesn't want to ruin his fashionable style with a bulky jacket!" Kou teased. Kiko automatically reached out and pushed Kou hard enough to make him take a few steps back and dutifully shook his head at the black haired one as he shrugged into the jacket.

"I am NOT going to ruin my ski week vacation just because you refuse to acknowledge that its cold like any normal person, so if you do get a cold, I am warning you now, I'm not taking care of you."

"Yes, Dr. Myo," Kiko answered seriously. "I understand."

"I don't know how you can be standing there for hours without feeling the cold…" Tonie whined, shivering a little to show her discomfort.

Kiko shrugged, but it was his sister that answered. "Kiko's never felt the cold the way the rest of us do," she answered for the benefit of the newer member of their circle.

"I don't mind the snow," he answered. "I kinda like it, actually."

"Freak," Kou mumbled under his breath as he pulled on his gloves. He turned to Tonie. "You know…" he grinned at her, showing pointy, almost fang-like incisors. "I could help warm you up," he said lecherously.

Tonie lifted an eyebrow at him, but couldn't keep the smile from tugging at her lips.

"I thought you didn't like girls, Kou," Hou teased.

Tonie pouted. "Really? You lean that way, Kou?" she sighed. "Aw, that's such a shame…and I was almost ready to take you up on your offer," she said in a mock disappointed tone.

Kou glowered at Hou. "I haven't said that since Elementary school, you freak!"

Kiko opened his mouth to comment when Kou glared at him too and pointed at him. "Don't you say a work, Kiko…" he narrowed his eyes at him. "I know things about you."

Kiko grinned innocently as he started to walk. "I wasn't going to say anything."

Cat, the newer of the two girls to his group stopped to look at him. "Kiko," she called.

"Hm?" he asked, smiling at her.

"That's such a strange name," she told him. "I'd been meaning to ask you…how'd you get it, anyway?"

Kiko grinned like the Cheshire Cat and his sister groaned. Ignoring her, he put his arm around Cat's shoulders comfortably and started walking her toward the ski lifts. "Well, you see, my grandfather named me after a great warrior and hero of Chinese myth."

"Really?" Cat asked, sincerely interested.

"Yep," he grinned.

His sister groaned louder. "Oh, Cat, for heaven's sake, don't encourage him!"

"No," Cat argued, laughing. "I want to hear this."

Four out of seven groaned in response.

"Well," he started. "I was born under his constellation, so they gave me his name."

"But you're name's Ryuuen, isn't it?" Cat asked, confused. "That's what the professors call you."

Kiko nodded. "Yep, that's my name," he agreed good naturedly.

"So how do you get the nickname Kiko from the name Ryuuen?" Cat pressed.

"Oh, you don't," he answered breezily. "Kiko comes from my middle name," he grinned at her. "Our father wanted to name me after himself, but my grandfather wanted to name me after the handsome…" he ignored the scoffs from the rest of his friends, "…hero of the constellation so…" he shrugged. "Kourin's just always called me Kiko and the rest of these bums picked up on it."

"Oh, that's cute!" Cat enthused. "Can I call you Kiko?"

Kiko grinned at her and winked. "Of course," he said charmingly.

She blushed. "So," she grinned. "Tell me about the warrior?"

A collective groan went up in the group and most of them started walking on ahead.

"I was afraid she'd ask that," Hou bemoaned to Kou, who nodded in agreement.

"Well, many years ago," Kiko started, once again ignoring the comments. "There was this kingdom in trouble in ancient China," Kiko began. "And the Emperor called upon their God Protector to send them the Priestess who could call the God and save the kingdom…"

"Sounds like a fairy story!" Cat enthused.

Kiko automatically smacked Hou on the back of the head before he could comment and opened his own mouth to reply when they had to stop walking to let a group of laughing girls walk passed. As he looked at them, he couldn't speak. His eyes were glued to the one with the brown hair in strange pig tails. She wasn't normally his type, but…something about that easy smile and the sound of her laughter triggered something…

He followed her with his eyes, but the girl didn't notice, only continued walking into the ski resort. His two friends stopped alongside him.

"What's the hold up?" the red head glared. "Oi, Kiko, what the hell's your…" he trailed off as he followed Kiko's sight and found the girl. "She's…" he started, his voice distant. "She can't be," he exhaled, glancing at Kiko. "Can she?"

"She is," Kiko affirmed.

"Staying here?" Myo asked, his eyes also watching her through the window.

"Hello?" Tonie asked, trying to get their attention. "Do you guys know her?"

Kiko met the eyes of his three friends and grinned. Slowly, the red-head's lips curled into a smile, Hou chuckled as his hand went to scratch the back of his neck and the doctor's eyes shone.

"Kou?" Cat asked. "Hou?" She looked at her brunette friend who had known the four boys and the sister longer than she did but she looked just as confused. "Anyone?" She met Kourin's eyes and saw a questioning awe in their depths. "Do you guys know her?" she repeated.

Slowly, Myo smiled. "Yes, we do," he answered for the others.

"What? How?" Tonie asked.

Kourin touched her brother's arm and smiled up at him. "Do you want to go and say hi?" she asked.

"Nah," Kou answered, seeming to snap out of his shock and beginning to walk. "So, how high is this slope again?"

Sharing glances with Tonie, Cat shrugged and jogged to catch up to Kiko. "Oi, Kiko!" she called. "What about the Priestess and the Kingdom?" She pressed as they walked. "Was Kiko the warrior who fell in love with her and helped her save the kingdom?"

Kiko smiled and nodded, falling into step alongside Cat. "He was one of them, yes."

- -

**A/N:** Well, here it is. My long ago promised Nuriko oriented fic. This is the fic that I sort of promised Tiranth I'd do. Now, my main question is, as you can probably tell from the fic itself, I've left it open to continue it. Puck (my muse for those of you who don't know) is rather inclined to want to continue it, but he hasn't convinced me enough nor has he hit me on the side of the head with a scene in which this would be continued. So, I leave it up to you, dear readers… **_would be interested in seeing a continuation of this?_** Obviously, if it happens, the continuation would be where they all meet Miaka again. Please feel free to help Puck convince me this should be continued if you are so inclined. . If I can be convinced, I might just sit and ask to be inspired rather than having to have Puck decide on a scene to inspire me with.

Okay, so for those of you who might be interested, this is how the idea for this fic came about: (For those of you who are not, you can skip this and go straight down to the comment / review part!)

One day, not that long ago, (try, less than a month ago) I was watching the Fushigi Yuugi episodes which I had never seen. And one of my favorite characters was, obviously, Nuriko. (I just love that type of person! He would sooo be my type…way more than Tamahome…him or Hotohori, actually, but him more.) So anyway, lo and behold, THEY KILL HIM OFF!! OMG, I cried sooo hard! And of course, I just happened to be watching it before class, too, so I showed up at class with puffy eyes and everything. . Anyway, long story short (Puck peeks in and yells out, "Too late!" before dodging back into the ether to avoid being hit by Em's sock) before I had even finished watching the series, the more romantic side of me was BEGGING Puck to inspire me to write a fic about Nuriko.

So, obviously, I told Tiranth who is a big FY fan and she prodded Puck to inspire me to the fic as well. (In return, I prodded her to do the Miaka / Tasuki pairing fic she had mentioned she had thought about doing. .) In any case, for days, Puck didn't inspire me. He had to go and speak to Nuriko about it, you see…(no, I'm not crazy…really…) and Puck was a little hesitant about doing that…

This is more or less how the conversation between Puck and Nuriko went (Puck is a fae, btw):

**Nuriko:** ( grins and embraces Puck.) Pucky-kun!!

**Puck:** (sighs and lets himself be embraced) Nuriko-sama. ( bows, when Nuriko lets him go. ) Thank you for seeing me.

**Nuriko:** ( pshaws, motions for him to sit. ) Please, sit, Pucky-kun! I was wondering when you'd get here.

**Puck:** ( sits and watches as Nuriko sits across from him, crossing his legs. Puck attempts to sit comfortably, but his wings get in the way, so with a wave, he removes them and is able to sit.) Yeah, so you know that Em wanted to do a fic about you.

**Nuriko:** ( grins ) Em? Or perhaps ReaderEm?

**Puck**: ( rolls his eyes. ) Both. Em hides behind ReaderEm's heart and uses her as an excuse when she thinks something is too sappy, but she was crying like a baby when you died all on her own.

**Nuriko**: ( smiles. ) Sugoi! She really cried? ( claps his hands and his eyes go twinkly ) Oh, that's just wonderful, to be missed like that! To have that kind of emotion shed because of you! To…

**Puck**: ( interrupts by waving his hand in front of Nuriko's eyes.) Yes, well, she did and she does and they miss you, so they wanted me to inspire them to a story about you, but I don't know enough about you, so I knew I'd have to sit and have a chat with you.

**Nuriko**: ( reaches over and pinches Puck's cheeks, much to his chargrin ) You're welcome anytime! You're soo kawaii!!

**Puck**: ( eyes open wide, he's worried ) Oi! Didn't you turn straight again?!

**Nuriko**: ( winks suggestively ) One can always have fun, can't one?

**Puck**: ( leans back, nervous, and clears his throat. ) Yes, well…about that fic…

**Nuriko**: ( in dreamy voice ) Yes, Pucky-kun?

**Puck**: ( coughs a little. ) WHAT… (voice cracks ) uh…what would you like for it to be about?

**Nuriko**: ( becomes suddenly serious, his arms cross over his chest and he leans back in the chair, his legs crossed. He's quiet for a bit, his eyes far away. ) …Snow…

**Puck**: ( blinks. ) Whoa, what a mood change! ( shakes his head. ) Uh…snow? As in…the white stuff that comes down in winter?

**Nuriko**: ( Nods, smiling absently. ) Snow.

**Puck**: ( Cocks his head to the side. ) Snow? Are you sure? Just snow? You don't want to tell me anything else?

**Nuriko**: ( cocks his head in imitation of Puck and a light twinkles in his eye ) Just snow. I trust you. Unless… ( trails off and leans in closer to Puck. )

**Puck**: ( swallows hard and leans back ) Unless?

**Nuriko**: ( grins ) You'd like to mind ( winks, suggestively ) meld with me.

**Puck**: ( stands up and steps back, hitting his calves on the arm chair. ) No melding! ( voice cracks, he clears his throat ) Of any kind. I think I can figure this out…

**Nuriko**: ( leans away again and crosses his arms, smiling innocently. ) Then just snow.

**Puck**: ( keeps trying to walk back away from Nuriko. He bows. ) uh…thank you for seeing me, Nuriko-sama…

**Nuriko**: ( pouts ) Aw…you can't stay any longer?

**Puck**: ( shakes his head. ) No! Uh…no…I must…go…and…be… ( he tries to fly, but goes nowhere…tries to fly again, goes nowhere again and realizes he doesn't have his wings. He waves his hand nervously, the wings appear and he bows one more time. ) …yeah… ( in a puff of magic, he's small again, his normal size and while Nuriko is laughing and waving at him, he flies up to hover in the air a moment, then with a nervous wave, disappears. )

- -

So, yeah. That's it. That's how this fic was started. Remember, now, if you're still reading this, it's most probably up to you whether or not this fic gets continued. Whether Kiko and the others get to see the girl or not! ;


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